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Christian Bale has said drones would be sent out after biblical character Moses had he been real and alive today. Bale, who plays Moses in Exodus: Of Gods and Kings, the forthcoming biblical epic directed by Ridley Scott, added that although Moses is depicted as a freedom fighter in the Bible, he is seen as a 'terrorist' by his enemies. The says he came to these conclusions while studying religious books and scriptures from different religions, including the Bible, the Torah and the Koran. Christian Bale said drones would be sent after 'terrorist' Moses had the character been real and...

Christian writer Brian Godawa dismissed recent comments made by actor Christian Bale characterizing the biblical Moses as "schizophrenic" and "barbaric" as ignorant bigotry. Bale plays Moses in the upcoming Ridley Scott film, "Exodus: Gods and Kings," which uses hi-tech visual effects to tell the story of how Moses frees 400,000 slaves from Egypt. It is slated for release in December. The Christian Post reported Sunday that Bale told a group of international reporters at the Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles last month that Moses was mentally unbalanced. "I think the man was likely schizophrenic and was one of the...

Christian Bale has some novel interpretations of Moses, whom he portrays in the upcoming "Exodus: God and Kings." "I think the man was likely schizophrenic and was one of the most barbaric individuals that I ever read about in my life," Bale said. Hard on the heels of Noah, which took great liberties with the biblical tale, Exodus is drawing criticism from Christian websites.

More Americans moved to Texas in recent years than any other state: A net gain of more than 387,000 in the latest Census for 2013. And Austin was the fastest growing major city. Jobs is the No. 1 reason for population moves, with affordable housing a close second. "It take two things to draw people inland in big numbers: jobs and housing affordability," said Nela Richardson, chief economist for the real estate broker Redfin. Texas and other heartland states have two advantages that translate into affordable housing: Plenty of cheap land around cities and easy regulations that enable developers to...

Not for the first time, an Egyptian commentator (this time a political scientist) has demanded that the Jews compensate Egypt for the gold they took on their way to freedom from slavery. (snip) It is worth noting that today's Egyptians are mostly the descendants of Arab conquerers - not the ancient Egyptians of Biblical times.

An inscribed stele erected at Thebes by Ahmose, the first Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, documents a destructive storm accompanied by flooding during his reign. Fragments of the stele were found in the 3rd Pylon of the temple of Karnak at Thebes between 1947 and 1951 by the French Mission. A restoration of the stele and translation of the text was published by Claude Vandersleyen (1967). In the following year (1968), Vandersleyen added two more fragments, one from the top of the inscription and a small piece from line 10 of the restored text, which had been recovered by Egyptian...

A 3,500-year-old inscription on a stone block found in Egypt is what archaeologists say the oldest weather report of the world. The inscription on a six-foot-tall calcite stone, called the Tempest Stela, describes rain, darkness and "the sky being in storm without cessation, louder than the cries of the masses," according to Nadine Moeller and Robert Ritner at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute who have translated the 40-line inscription. The stela's text also describes bodies floating down the Nile like "skiffs of papyrus." "This was clearly a major storm, and different from the kinds of heavy rains that Egypt...

In a July 8, 2014 interview with Egypt's Channel 1, Egyptian political scientist Ammar Ali Hassan said that the Jews had stolen Egypt's gold and treasures when they left ancient Egypt. The character of Shakespeare's Shylock is "a replica of the Jew who lived in Egypt – a merchant and a loan shark," he said, adding: "We demand that they return the treasures they stole from us." Following are excerpts: Ammar Ali Hassan: The Jews wanted [Egypt] to pay them compensation to the tune of dozens of billions of dollars, although our economy is very hard off. More importantly, they...

While the world fixates on the conflict between Israel and Hamas—and while most mainstream media demonize Israel for trying to survive amid a sea of Arab-Islamic hostility—similar or worse tragedies continue to go virtually ignored.

The lights are going out in the land of the Enlightenment. The violent, anti-Semitic nightmare Europe thought it would never see again after the Nazi Holocaust is raising its ugly head once more, this time on French soil. Jew-hatred, mostly among France’s six and a half million Muslims, is reaching such threatening proportions that an increasing number of the country’s 500,000 Jews feel forced to leave their native land to ensure their safety. At one Jewish agency that assists French Jews to emigrate to Israel the telephone, it was reported, “does not stop ringing. “For 2014, one will have to...

What Exiting Is and Isn't Virno believes a radical disobedience is needed to challenge the state's ability to command. This cannot be expressed through resistance to a specific law on the grounds, for example, that it contradicts a constitution. Such resistance is actually a vote of confidence in the state qua state; that is, such activists fight to enable a purer vision of state authority rather than against the idea of a state itself. A wholesale rejection is required. And, yet, revolutionaries who violently confront the state usually suffer one of two fates: they are slaughtered or otherwise broken or...

This story is about a gilded class of people and corporations enriched by the new American economy while the rest of its citizens pay the tab. The protagonists could be any number of institutional elites, but this column happens to be about a Democratic senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, and his daughter, Heather Bresch, the chief executive of Mylan, a giant maker of generic drugs based outside Pittsburgh. Her company's profits come largely from Medicaid and Medicare, which means her nest is feathered by U.S. taxpayers. On Monday, Bresch announced that Mylan will renounce its United States citizenship and...

For the past six years, the Tax Foundation's "State Business Climate Index" has named California 48th in the nation. CEO Magazine has placed it dead last for the past eight years in its "Best and Worst States for Business" rankings. The causes of California's business climate struggles are well-documented: high, overly complicated, and numerous taxes, expensive property, increasing energy costs, burdensome labor and environmental regulations, and a state legislature indifferent to business concerns, among others.So, when rankings like CNBC's show California more competitive, it raises questions. Why? And is there hope for California? While most rankings look narrowly at a...

When Hollywood leaves Hollywood, you know things are bad. Sony Pictures Imageworks is moving its headquarters from Culver City to Canada.The visual-effects unit, which employs about 270 people, said it was moving a bulk of its operations to Vancouver, where it already has a satellite studio, the Los Angeles Times reported.A small staff will remain in Los Angeles. The move will cut costs due to Canadian tax breaks, the Times said. For the moment this is just the visual effects unit, but considering how much filming is done abroad, it’s not a good sign.Movies are going where the tax credits...

Pollution, tainted food and education are causing many of the country’s wealthy to flee, survey finds. Earlier this year, the best company at surveying the rich in China announced that more than 60% of the people it surveyed had already immigrated to another country, or were considering doing so. The question for the Hurun Report, which publishes an annual China rich list, was why? Was pollution driving people abroad, weariness over China’s political crackdowns, or something else entirely? It turns out the questions also nagged Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of Hurun. At the time, his best guess was that pollution and...

While every state has at least some residents who are looking for greener pastures; as Gallup reports, nowhere is the desire to move more prevalent than in Illinois and Connecticut. In both of these states, about half of residents say that if given the chance to move to a different state, they would like to do so (against an average 33% of all Americans who would prefer to live in another state than their own). The 'greenest pasture' or least disliked, according to Gallup, is Hawaii and Montana (where only 23% would prefer to leave). The biggest factor driving...

California’s inhospitable tax policies may have struck again, this time costing Los Angeles one of its largest employers. According to multiple sources close to the situation, Toyota will be relocating its US headquarters from the LA suburb of Torrance to Plano, Texas. The company has yet to notify its employees of the news, but is expected to do so Monday, followed by a public announcement. While it’s unlikely that Toyota, which is ranked 8th on Fortune’s Global 500, will directly cite taxes as the reason for its relocation, it should come as little surprise that the financial burden of operating...

Toyota Motor Corp. plans to move large numbers of jobs from its sales and marketing headquarters in Torrance to suburban Dallas, according to a person familiar with the automaker's plans. The move, creating a new North American headquarters, would put management of Toyota's U.S. business close to where it builds most cars for this market. North American Chief Executive Jim Lentz is expected to brief employees Monday, said the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly. Toyota declined to detail its plans. About 5,300 people work at Toyota's Torrance complex. It is unclear how many workers will be asked...

Conventional biblical scholars tentatively position Moses during the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom reign of Ramses II. Not much evidence supports this view. However, the Egyptian Twelfth Dynasty stories provide so many details which match the Exodus details, that these coincidences strongly suggest that both sources are describing the same events... Amenemhet I - Sehetepibre (1991-1962) First king of the 12th Dynasty... The Story of Sinuhe tells of the events concerning his murder... This is 'the Egyptian' killed by Moses (as Sinuhe) for 'abusing a Hebrew'. He is Moses' half-brother and adoptive step-father. His mother is Nubian. Senusret I - Kheperkare...

LAST FALL, the United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism, the largest branch of American Judaism, issued a new Torah and commentary titled "Etz Hayim" – "tree of life" – that includes several background essays discussing recent scholarship on the bible and Near Eastern archaeological findings. According to the March 9 New York Times account, the new Torah, the first in 60 years for conservative Jews, is particularly notable because the new scholarship shows that the early books of the bible have no historical validity. The Garden of Eden? An etiological myth. Noah and the flood? A legend that arose in Mesopotamia...